You don’t want to miss this Mustang vs. Fiesta drag race

One is out of its element and the other is really good on a dirt road, but both the Mustang Cobra Jet and the GRC Fiesta ST are two Fords that can create a lot of tire smoke.

Screenshot, Ford Racing/YouTube

One starts life as a muscle car and the other as a subcompact, but today's Midday Matinee shows you these two cars have much in common

by
Nick Tragianis, Driving | October 31, 2013

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What happens when two Fords — a Mustang and a Fiesta — face off in a drag race?

One of them will win. Nay, one of them will mop the floor with the other. But when the Mustang is a Cobra Jet and the Fiesta is a rally car, things become slightly different.

Today’s video shows you what happens when one races the other. The Mustang Cobra Jet, driven by NRHA legend Roy Hill, is purpose-built to lay down rubber and burnouts on dragstrips. It doesn’t look too different than a standard Mustang GT, but then you notice the fat racing slicks on the rear wheels. Those are there to keep all of its kick from the supercharged 5.0-litre V8 on the ground.

It doesn’t seem like a fair battle, but Hill squares off against rally driver and Top Gear USA host Tanner Foust. He is in his Fiesta, tuned for competition in the Golbal Rallycross championship. Thanks to a rather large turbocharger, this Fiesta’s 2.0-litre inline-four sends more than 550 horsepower to all four wheels.

Seems like a leisurely Sunday drive, right? All we can say is, one car is out of its element, another wouldn’t fare well on a dirt course and both can create a lot of tire smoke.